forest voice fall 2002

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Native Forest CouncilPO Box 2190Eugene, OR 97402

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Forest Voiceall 2002Fall 2002 A Publ icat ion of the Nat ive Forest Counci l s ince 1988 www.forestcounci l.org A Publication of the Native Forest Council since 1988 www.forestcouncil.org

Nonprofit Org.

U.S. Postage PAID

Eugene, OR

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2 Forest Voice Fall 2002

Forest Voice 1988-2002ISSN 1069-2002Native Forest CouncilPO Box 2190Eugene, OR 97402541.688.2600Fax [email protected]

Forest Voiceis sent free tomembers of the Native

Forest Council. The costof U.S. membership is $35annually. Bulk orders of theForest Voiceare available for$25 per 100, plus shipping.A complimentary copy isavailable on request.

All rights to publication ofarticles appearing inForestVoiceare reserved.

PublisherTimothy Hermach

EditorEd Dorsch

Managing EditorWendy Martin

Special ThanksScott BatemanBrett CampbellBrett ColeElizabeth Feryl

Jim FlynnFunk/Levis & Associates:

Chris Berner, David FunkPeddlers ExpressTrygve SteenSarah WiltzMatt Wuerker

CoverThe Bush Administrationsresponse to summer forestfires is a call for increasedcommercial logging innational forests. Cover art

by Matt Wuerker. See story,page 11.

Submission GuidelinesWe welcome unsolicitedsubmissions that addressissues relevant to publiclands protection andsupport the Native ForestCouncils mission. If youwould like us to return yourwork, please include a SASE.

Inspired? Angry?Impressed?Please write:Native Forest CouncilPO Box 2190Eugene, OR 97402

Forest VoicesKeep Up the Good Work

Hello Friends,This is an Earth Day thank you, hug and general

keep up the great work card from (getting to be long-time) supporters of Native Forest Councils work. Its sad

to witness the vestiges of industrial exploitation of the earthsabundance so greatly diminish the quality of life we are passing

along to our children. We live not far from where Rachel Carsonslife drew to a close nearly four decades ago, and I shudder at theecosystem decline and loss since then. How would she assessthe modern ethic for conservation, personal responsibility andreverence for creation? I trust that NFC would score well, but as asociety we have been tragically sleeping. We know that Republican,legislative and judicial control means increased pressure onour sacred publiclands. We must worktirelessly to protect ourinheritance andremember that nostruggle to protectlife on earth is everoverThe pressure toexploit and developwill be back tomorrow. We know that NFC will be there, too,

carrying our message: No More Logging on Federal Land! (Campfire allowances as needed!)

Please, please know that your good efforts are making adifference. David Brower, quoted inEarth Island Journal, Summer2002: Dont expect politicians to do your job for you. Politiciansare like weather vanes. Our job is to make the wind blow!-Barbie Lynch, Mark Keating, Celeste Keating, Takoma Park, MD

A Terrible LossDry and bitter cold,with flint hard rockand treeless mountains,the vistas of the Great Basinecho like a moonscape,dazzling with abandoned beauty.If the left behind and rejected placesstill astonish with Gods creation

what were the rich valleys likebefore we altered the landfor ease and commerce.There is a terrible losswe leave unspoken,worse than our unrelenting devotion to war.Weve silenced His voice in the riversand paved over Her beauty.What grief must lay before us.

-Don Hynes, Portland, OR

Support from New York High SchoolThe Environmental Club of Centereach High School strives torecognize notable organizations that serve the community onenvironmental issues. This year the Club members have decidedto donate money from their fundraising efforts to Native ForestCouncil so that you may continue your good work. Please accept

our enclosed donation. We hope it will assist your organizationin its continued efforts to protect our public lands, mostparticularly our treasured national forests.

-Sincerely, Elaine Maas, Environmental Club Advisor,Centereach, New York

Editors note: Centereach Environmental Club chose one local, regionaland national organization that focuses on each of the central elementsof the environment: land, air and water. The Club chose Native ForestCouncil as the national recipient of their donation because of ourmission to protect and preserve public lands.

b

An open forum for Forest Council members0

Patrick McDonnell. Reprinted with special permission of King Features Syndicate.

What We SeeThe intense deep cobalt blue of the lake makes me think of CraterLake. But this lake is not a perfect circle. It is more the shape ofan apostrophe. There is a trunk of an old pine lying in the water.Move up the trail, look back, and we can still see the tree lyingthere. Its that big. The slope is steep, and as we climb you pointout something perched on a dead snag. It looks like an eagle but

is too large. Ive never seen a bird that large. The color appearsdazzling white, but also blue, and it is the blue that holds myattention. The head is white like a bald eagle, I think, but it takesoff before we can get a better look. Then we see higher in thesky other like birds circling. They look too large to be able tofly but they are floating in wide circles like buzzards who havespotted death. We look for other people to witness this sight but

there is no one closeenough to hear us. Wewant to leave and findpeople to bring backto this spot. We dontwant this story to bedismissed. We want tounderstand what it isthat we are witnessing.

Then, as we watch to our right, moving across the sky, a group

of Botticelli-like women, hair and clothing draping gracefullyaround their forms, each leans toward the other in exquisitesympathy, each supports the other together ascending.

Later I approach a roomful of people and I inquire if anyonehas seen the eagle, but I dont mention the women.

This weekend I read that a young woman, Beth OBrien, fellto her death from a tree while protesting the Eagle Creek timbersale. The sale was cancelled a few days before her fall but it wassaid the protesters couldnt be reached because of the snow. Theparties involved with the decision said that the cancellation hadnothing to do with the protesters. Our senator called the deathof the young woman a waste. No recognition for her sacrifice isgiven here on the ground.

The sightings of the blue eagles and the young womenoccurred in a dream a day or two before reading of the death ofthe young protester.

-Barb Emge, Eugene, OR

Native VoiceFor Tim HermachIn memory the reflection liesupon a wasteland openingwhere the untrammeled heartwill no longer contain this destruction.

Your life sifts through volumes of information,grains of sand in the hour glassturning upon itself:Theres no time to do it again,nutrients of fragile forest giants stacked 10,000 years,a light switch of catastrophic change hinged on global warming.The crust of a military presencebrings forth this child of peace

whose anger no longer containsany mercy for the source of our degradation.So, mingling spirits in fire, you make your stand:We are coming.Get out of the way.We are in your face forever.WE WILL NOT COMPROMISE!

-Lloyd Marbet, Boring, Oregon2000 Secretary of State Green Party Candidate

Chief petitioner of Campaign Finance Reform initiative

We must work tirelessly to protect our inheritance and

remember that no struggle to protect life on Earth is ever

overThe pressure to exploit and develop will be back

tomorrow. We know that NFC will be there too, carrying

our message: No More Logging on Federal Land!


3/16

News and Views

3

CONTENTSCONTENTS4 Red Rocks

Utahs proposed Redrock Wilderness is a rugged, fragile desert of extremes. Itsalso threatened by grazing, drilling and off road vehicles.

7 Summer SiegePublic lands across the nation are being threatened by extractive industries andthe Bush administrations corporate controlled agenda.

10 We Already Pay Taxes!Native Forest Council joins with citizens to promote free access to public lands

and end the controversial Fee Demo program.

11 Cover Story: Forest FiresDespite overwhelming evidence that commercial logging makes wildfires worse,the Bush administration has called for public lands logging as the fire solution.

15 Solutions: Preventing WildfirePrivate homeowners could take simple steps to save public dollars and put fewerfirefighters at risk. Heres what they could do and why they arent doing it.

Forest Voice Fall 2002

Native ForestCouncil

The Native Forest Council isa nonprofit, tax deductibleorganization founded bya group of business andprofessional people alarmedby the willful destructionof our national forests. Webelieve a sound economyand a sound environmentneed not be incompatibleand that current public landmanagement practices aredevastating to both.

The mission of the NativeForest Council is to protectand preserve every acreof publicly owned land inthe United States.

Board of DirectorsAllan BranscombLarry DeckmanSharon DugganCalvin HecoctaGeorge HermachTimothy HermachMark MinnisNathan Tublitz

Advisory BoardEd Begley, Jr.

Jeff DeBonisErika FinstadDavid FunkRev. James Parks MortonLewis SeilerFraser Shilling

PresidentTimothy Hermach

Vice PresidentEd Dorsch

StaffRobert MarisWendy MartinMichelle PageDebbie Shivers

InternsLeah GreensteinClaire Tongry

VolunteersJohn BorowskiDana Furgerson

Jean Hanna

ForesterRoy Keene

Regional RepresentativesRick GormanBerkeley, CA310.647.1904

Margaret Hays YoungBrooklyn, NY718.789.0038718.789.8157 fax

Wayne NortonGainesville, FL352.373.8733

Jason TamblynDuluth, GA678.969.7013

Council Takes Stand Against Forest FeesOn June 15, opponents of the Recreation Fee Demonstration pro-gram or Fee Demo, held a National Day of Action, organizing30 protests in nine different states, including a mock coffin-nailing in New Hampshire, simulated sidewalk demonstrationfees in San Francisco and a toilet paper drive in Colorado (tooffset one expense supposedly covered by fees). Native ForestCouncil provided national media support and participated in

Oregon demonstrations. Introduced as a three-year experiment,Fee Demo has been extended through 2004 by two additionalriders. Today, fees are charged at 1,400 sites on national parks,forests and BLM lands, generating an estimated $180 millionannually. At least four state governments have passed legisla-tion to formally oppose Fee Demo, citing the fact that federalagencies already receive taxpayer dollars, but use most of it tosubsidize mining, logging, grazing and drilling on public lands.The fees also hurt low-income families, promote destructive rec-reational activities and continue the commercialization of ourpublic lands. (See story, page 10.)

Bush Agency Withdraws Habitat ProtectionsThe Bush administration withdrew keyhabitat protections for 19 endangered

populations of Northwest salmon andsteelhead this May, which could open areas to

greater development. The ruling removes the speciescritical habitat designation under the Endangered

Species Act (ESA), and affects 150 watersheds, rivers, bays andestuaries in four western states, including the Puget Sound andthe Columbia and Snake Rivers.

Tracking Our Disappearing ForestsThis June, Native Forest Council began an unprecedentedresearch project to document the decline of our national forests.Drawing on resources from NASA and the University of Oregon,the Council is compiling aerial photographs of all our nationalforests. The photographs will demonstrate the impact of nationalforest logging and, where available, will show before-and-aftercomparisons of how our national forests once looked fromabove. Once the project is complete, the maps will beavailable in print, on the web and in largerformats for the press, teachers, researchers

and conservation activists.(See example, pages 8-9.)

Owl Population: Worst Case ScenarioThe spotted owl, a species that indicates forest health, is morethreatened today than it was in the 1970s and 80s, according toa government biologist quoted in the Seattle Weekly. Populationshave declined 50% in ten years, a rate the federal governmentcalled a worst case scenario just one decade ago.

Bush Opens Forests to CuttingThanks to the Bush administrations recent amendments

to the 1994 Northwest Forest Plan (which left more thana million acres of old growth forest open to cutting), this

summer marked a dramatic increase in logging onnational forests in the Northwest. By limiting

public input, restricting legal challengesand streamlining the Forest Service

planning process, many of the plansloopholes have been expanded, openingmore native forests to the chainsaw.

Hermach Featured as Inspirational SpeakerCouncil President Tim Hermach traveled more than 3,000 milesto address the Southern Appalachian Biodiversity Project (SABP)in Asheville, North Carolina this June. The Biodiversity Projectseeks permanent protection for Southern Appalachias publiclands and sustainable management of private lands. Hermachalso traveled around the East Coast speaking with journalists,visiting with prominent Washington D.C. attorneys andstrategizing with other environmental activists about how toprotect and preserve our public lands.

S. Dakota Exempt from Enviro RegulationsIn July, Senate majority leader Tom Daschle quietly inserted

language into a defense spending bill that would exempt hishome state of South Dakotas Black Hills National Forest fromenvironmental regulations and lawsuits in order to allow loggingto prevent forest fires. While there has been little oppositionfrom Big Green environmental organizations (Daschle is aSierra Club-backed Democrat), lawmakers in other high-riskstates are voicing their outrage that their states dont have similarprovisions. Both House and Senate Republicans plan to introducelegislation that extends logging and lawsuit exemptions to publiclands in every other state at risk of catastrophic wildfire.

Bush Fire Plan Opposite of Whats NeededAs of our press date, both houses of Congress are debating

wildfire legislation. President Bush has proposed openingten million acres of federal land to logging and guttingthe environmental review process as part of his Forest

Health Initiative. But increasing logging to prevent wildfire

contradicts the historical record of the past century, according toa September 17 article in theLos Angeles Times. The newspaperinvestigated government records to reveal that past logging hasnot only failed to reduce wildfire, but actually increased them.Partial cutting done historically typically aggravated the firehazard and made things worse when the fire came along, C.Phillip Weatherspoon (an emeritus research forester with theForest Service) told the Times. See pages 11-15 for more on wildfires.

For the latest information on fire policy, go to www.forestcouncil.org.


4/16


Few places on earth appeal equally to hikers, campers,geologists, ecologists and archaeologists. But the plateaus,canyons and rivers proposed for wilderness designation

in Utah fit the bill. There are nine million acres of Bureau ofLand Management (BLM) land proposed for wilderness. In Utah,conservationists simply call it the Redrock Wilderness, and itholds secrets about the birth of humanity, the earths adolescenceand the placidity only the desert can provide.

The Redrock Wilderness comprises two main regions ofUtah: the Colorado Plateau and the Basin and Range. Both areas

are ecologically similar, but their geology (both past and present)is very different.

These two regions connect eight of Utahs nine nationalparks, monuments and recreation areas. The BLM lands thatmake up the Redrock Wilderness are just as beautiful and vital asthe areas already protected.

The Colorado PlateauThe Plateau is a large basin of 130,000 square miles filled withsmaller plateaus and shaped by two of North Americas largestrivers, the Colorado and the Green, and their tributaries. Inbetween plateaus, erosion has carved thousands of miles ofcanyons, a strange landscape of domes, towers, monuments,temples, spires, hoodoos, monoliths and massive stone arches.

This is a land of alarming contradictions. Snow-cappedmountains loom over the desert and pools of water hide inpetrified sand dunes. The proposed Grand Staircase Wilderness

Area alone comprises six major ecosystems, from the SonoranDesert to alpine forests.

The Plateau began forming 570 million years ago and

continues evolving today. Seas have filled the plain and receded,earthquakes have fractured the land and magma has erupted tothe surface. Unlike the Rockies and the Sierras, this region haschanged gradually. Contained within the strata of the rock aredinosaur fossils, which are covered by remains of mammothsand sloths and covered again by human artifacts spanningthousands of years. The Ancestral Puebloans (Anasazi), wholived in the Four Corners region between 1 and 1300 AD,left abundant ruins in the area, including well preserved cliffdwellings and rock art.

The seemingly barren landscape holds a wide diversity ofnative flora and fauna, from 2,000 year old bristlecone pine tothe rare Gila monster, one of only two venomous lizards in theworld. But much of it is threatened. It is estimated that 180 plantspecies in the area are endangered, threatened or sensitive. Manyof these are endemic species. The Plateau is home to at least twodozen endangered or sensitive wildlife species, including thebald eagle, peregrine falcon and native fish. Big game animalssuch as elk, bison, bighorn sheep and antelope fight for existenceas well.

Perhaps the most endangered member of the Plateaus webof life is the regions cryptobiotic soil. Covering more than 75percent of the Plateaus surface, this brittle living crust containsbacteria, lichens, mosses and other organisms essential to adesert ecology. These help create a fertile and erosion resistantsurface that retains vital moisture in arid climates. Merelywalking on this fragile soil can destroy decades of growth and

amplify erosion in surrounding areas. It can take up to 250years for cryptobiotic soil to regenerate. Off road vehicle (ORV)use and extractive practices are degrading this essential desertresource at an alarming rate.Utahs Basin and RangeThe Redrock Basin and Range is geologically younger than theColorado Plateau. Californias San Andreas Fault helped formthe mountain ranges here 20 million years ago. These ranges riseup from salt flats, some of them high enough to draw moisturethat support streams, meadows and forests.

These mountains are rugged and remote, with canyonsslicing into them and sand dunes surrounding them. Upperelevations support flowering meadows, bristlecone pine, spruce,Douglas fir and aspen. The lower elevations give rise to pinionpine, mountain mahogany and sagebrush. Finally, the salt flatsare covered in grasses and sage.

Due to overgrazing, plant life in the area is threatened. Manyendemic species are rare now, and in dire need of protection.Livestock has also driven native bighorn and antelope fromthe area. The Gila monster, chuckwalla, desert tortoise andBonneville cutthroat are threatened. Cattle have destroyedhundreds of miles of streams in the area, threatening riparianlife as well.

Finally, artifacts from the Desert Archaic and FreemontIndian cultures, some dating back 10,000 years, are beingvandalized and poached, destroying important records ofhuman history in the area.

We must protect these vital ecosystems and historicartifacts before its too late. The Colorado Plateau, Basin andRange regions must be made a part of the National WildernessPreservation System.

Redrocks

The nine million

acres of BLM

land proposed

for wildernessdesignation hold

secrets about the

birth of humanity,

the Earths

adolescence and

the placidity only

the desert can

provide.

A pictograph believed to have been left by the ancestral Pueblo people (Anasazi) is drawn on the red rock walls in the San Rafael Swell, a BLM area in

south central Utah between Canyonlands and Capitol Reef National Parks. This pictograph is known as the Rain God. Photo by James Kay.

The Redrock

Wilderness is already

owned by all of the

people of the United

States and should be

considered a national

treasure like the Grand

Canyon or the Statue

of Liberty. The terraincannot bear much use

or development and

the treasures it holds

are too rare and special

to be exploited. These

lands and the wildlife

that inhabit them

deserve the protection

that permanent

wilderness designation

would offer.-Rep. Maurice Hinchel (D-NY)

by Jenny Jackson

Arches N.P.Great Basin

Dinosaur N.M.

Moab

Grand Staircase N.M.

Canyonlands N.P.

Glen CanyonNatural

Bridges N.P.

Zion National Park

Great Salt Lake

Salt Lake City

Proposed Redrock

Wilderness

UTAH


5/16

5Forest Voice Fall 2002

The Public Lands Series

With so many threats toour natural treasures andso many problems to solve,we feel its equally importantto celebrate and enjoythe splendor of our publiclands. In every issue of theForest Voice, we highlight a

special part of public landsin the U.S. These arentthe only areas we believeshould be protected. NativeForest Council is fighting

for total preservation of all650 million acres of national

forests, BLM lands, nationalparks and wildlife refuges.

Bureau of Livestock and Miningby Jenny Jackson

W

ith the enactment of the Wilderness Act of 1964, theNational Wilderness Preservation System (NWPS) was

created to secure for the American people of presentand future generations the benefits of an enduring resource ofwilderness ... untrammeled by man, where man is a visitor whodoes not remain.

However, one stipulation that led to the passage of the act wasthat the 300 million acres under Bureau of Land Management(BLM) control would not be considered for preservation any timesoon. It was a critical clause.

The BLM is sometimes called the Bureau of Livestock andMining. Its a title it often deserves. The agency was createdfrom the marriage of the General Land Office and the GrazingService, and it wasnt until 1976 that the agency had to considerland as potential wilderness, not only as a means to commercialgain. That was the year that the BLM was ordered to assess itsholdings to determine which lands were eligible for the NWPS.

The agency was slow to oblige. By the mid 90s, onlyCalifornia and Arizona had designated BLM wilderness. Most

lands were still being used for industrial extraction, and fewsections were even labeled Wilderness Study Areas (lands beingconsidered for preservation, but not yet deemed suitable).

The process has been especially slow in Utah. Of 22 millionacres under BLM control, only 2.5 million were recommendedby the agency for wilderness designation. And although theBLM slightly increased their findings in the face of publicoutrage, the agency still seems to be more interested in profitsthan protection.

In fact, a January report from the Department of the Interiorto the Utah BLM said Utah staff need to understand that oil andgas drilling is their No. 1 priority.

More drilling permits were approved by the BLM in 2001than any previous year. And when permit violations werediscovered by the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance earlierthis year (a truck exploring for oil had left 15-inch deep rutsin the fragile cryptobiotic soil, in excess of a four-inch rut

maximum), BLM officials sped to the site to cover the rutsbefore reporters arrived.

And theres more to cover up. The BLM is supposed topreserve Wilderness Study Areas until Congress deems themwilderness-worthy or not. If the lands are not protected, theysuffer degradation and are no longer eligible for wildernessdesignation. A study by the General Accounting Office, theinvestigative arm of the U.S. Government, found that UtahsBLM was not enforcing ORV regulations, and erosion wasaccelerating in many areas. This was making the lands ineligiblefor wilderness designation and open for further drilling anddevelopment.

Until public lands such as the Redrock Wilderness arespecifically designated as wilderness areas, the BLM will allowdesecration and destruction to continue.

What is aWilderness?

Congress established the Wilderness Act of 1964to preserve the nationsremaining wild lands fortheir natural, cultural andscientific value. To qualify

for wilderness designation,an area must be publicly

owned land retainingits primeval characterand influence, withoutpermanent improvementsor human habitation. Areasare usually required to beat least 5,000 acres andmust provide opportunities

for solitude or primitiverecreation. The act also says,A wilderness, in contrastwith those areas where manand his own works dominatethe landscape, is herebyrecognized as an area wherethe earth and its communityof life are untrammeled by

man, where man himselfis a visitor who does notremain... The Wilderness

Act established the National Wilderness PreservationSystem, which consistsof federally owned areasdesignated by Congress aswilderness areas. Althoughpre-established mining andgrazing are permitted in adesignated Wilderness, newlogging, mining, grazing,road building and ORV useare not allowed.

Citizens take over where BLM failsby Wendy Martin

Following the 1964 Wilderness Act, a federal land managementact required the Bureau of Land Management (BLM)to inventory all roadless areas for potential wilderness

designation. Until Congress made a final decision, suitable landswere to be managed as Wilderness. But in Utah, the BLM seemedto have other goals in mind. In 1980, the agency completed aplan that focused on commercial and industrial development.Out of 23 million acres, the BLM designated only 2.5 million aspotential wilderness.

When the BLM recommended only a fraction of what

conservationists in Utah knew was eligible, citizens decided totake matters into their own hands. Forty citizen groups formedthe Utah Wilderness Coalition (UWC) and began to develop an

alternative to the BLMs proposal. Formed in 1985, the UWC hasgrown to include 240 local, regional and national organizationsand individuals. UWCs proposal is the result of several yearswork in the field, mapping boundaries of proposed areas anddocumenting wilderness characteristics. Where the BLM reported2.5 million eligible acres, the citizens charted 9.1 million.

Three main threats stand in the way of wilderness designationfor all 9.1 million acres. First, to adhere to Bushs National EnergyPlan, the BLM is streamlining the mining and drilling permitprocess on existing claims and leases. Second, Utah countyofficials are using an obscure mining law from 1866 (intendedby Civil War-era lawmakers to give prospectors easy access totheir claims) to create roads and grant private interest groups theright-of-way over public land. Finally, extraction and a growingnumber of off-road vehicles are scarring delicate desert soils. Andrather than strictly enforcing wilderness regulations, the BLMhas focused on exploration and development.

Tourismnot resource extractionis one of the largest andmost important economic activities of Utahs economy. And thetourism industry is dependent on maintaining the wildernessquality of Redrock. According to the 2001 Utah EconomicReport to the Governor, 2000 revenue from tourism in Utah was$4.25 billion, while the production value of oil development

was only $640 million. Mining-related employment (includingoil and gas development) was less than 1 percent of Utahstotal non-agricultural jobs. Continuing to destroy Redrockswilderness quality will cause far more harm to Utahs economythan the small amount of revenue generated from oil and gasdevelopment.

Unlike the BLM, the general public seems to realize theimportance of Redrock. A recent poll of Utah residents conductedby Wirthlin Worldwide revealed that seven of ten Utah residentsfavor designating undeveloped BLM lands as wilderness. In 1995,pro-wilderness speakers outnumbered their opponents at eachof five regional hearings to gauge public opinion on wildernessdesignation. Of the more than 22,000 opinions received bythe Utah governors office during the hearings, more than 70percent supported the citizens wilderness proposal.

Congress has also recognized the importance of Redrock.In 1989, the citizens first proposal of 5.7 million acres was

introduced into Congress as Americas Redrock WildernessAct. After the citizens second inventory, an expanded bill thatencompassed 9.1 million acres was re-introduced into Congressin 1999 and again in April 2001, with a record number ofcosponsors. Americas Redrock Wilderness Act is now in the107th Congress. It now has 162 cosponsors in the House and17 in the Senate, and has a good chance of passing. In the pastdecade, Congress has voted down every compromising, anti-wilderness proposal for Utahs canyons and deserts. Redrock isa fragile and stunning wilderness that must be preserved for allfuture generations. Once its gone, we can never get it back. Andif the BLM wont do its job, the public will.

Hikers explore Utahs Parunweap Canyon. Photo by James Kay.

Blooming Mules Ears on a sand dune near the San Rafael Reef in southern

Utah. Photo by James Kay.

Utahs economy depends on tourism far morethan on oil developmentIn 2000, Utahs

revenue from tourism was $4.25 billion, whilethe production value of oil development was

only $640 million.

Past Features:

Summer 2002The Yellowstone Ecosystem

Spring 2002Yosemite National Park

Winter 2001-2Hart Mt. Wildlife Refuge

Fall 2001Lewis & Clark National Forest

Summer 2001Jack Morrow Hills (BLM)

To obtain past issues, pleasecontact our main office:[email protected]


6/16

Forest Voice Fall 2002

by Ed Dorsch

That experience

really opened my

eyes. I thought,The Forest Service?

Smokey Bear? They

cant be doing

this! Robbs case

opened the door

and I began to

see the clearcuts,

the waste and the

deception.

Where are they now?

Rick Gorman: Gorman left the Forest Council Eugene officetwo years ago to attend law school in New York. After earninghis degree, Gorman moved to Berkley and is now studying forthe bar exam while interning with environmental lawyer and

Council chairwoman Sharon Duggan.

Jessica Brittsan: The Forest Voices former managing editor isliving in San Francisco, working for direct mail maven MalWarwick, helping nonprofit organizations fundraise.

Shawn Irvine: Irvine, administrative assistant at the ForestCouncil from 1999 to 2000, is with the Peace Corps in Paraguay,working on municipal projects such as flood prevention, taxassistance and AIDS prevention.

Managing Editor Wendy Martin joined Native ForestCouncil last January, fresh from completing herstudies at the University of Oregon (BA Honors

College, Journalism, minor fine arts). A writer, designer andphotographer, Martin brings both a strong narrative voice andan artists touch to theForest Voice. An all-state gymnast in highschool, she also claims she can still do back handsprings, but we

havent confirmed that yet.Martin was born in Ashland, Oregon. Her mother is a private

music teacher and her father teaches first grade. As far back asI can remember, my family always enjoyed the outdoors, saysMartin. Every Sunday was family day. Wed go on a hike or apicnic. Our home is out on the edge of the woods, too. My dadand I would hike all around back there when I was little. Thanksto Ashlands open space laws, we could enjoy city-owned forestsand meadows.

This love of the outdoors was also fostered by hergrandmother, who lives in a log home in a forested Quakercommunity in British Columbia. My grandma moved there asa young woman, Martin says. She and grandpa built the houseby hand, and shes lived there ever since. I love to visit. Its myescape from everything. But they just logged a beautiful stretchof old growth along Fry Creek and it broke grandmas heart.Mine too.

It wasnt until her first year at the University of Oregon thatMartins commitment to conservation became political. She mether partner, Robb Maris, after joining the University crew team,and found herself in the middle of a public lands struggle thatsstill going on today.

Maris was the first person to challenge the Fee Demoprogram (see story, p. 10), refusing to pay fees at a Forest Servicetoll booth that blocked access to his favorite surfing spot on theOregon coast. He beat the federal government. Today, Marisis working with Native Forest Council to continue oppositionagainst Fee Demo.

That experience really opened my eyes, Martin says.I thought, The Forest Service? Smokey Bear? They cant bedoing this! Robbs case opened the door, and I began to see theclearcuts, the waste and the deception. Youd think an educatedperson would be able to easily find out whats going on, but theyreally hide whats beyond the beauty strip so well.

Robb likes drawing attention to issues through action, andhes good at it. But Id rather work behind the scenes, researching,writing or taking pictures. I enjoy it. I got into journalism becauseI believe that writing is one of the most influential tools to makechange. I want to jolt people out of their apathy to help savewhats left. And I think good journalism is very important in theconservation movement. It takes many people doing differentthings to draw attention to issues and make change. The truth

speaks for itself on this issue. And, if more people knew the truthabout national forests, big changes would happen.

Right now, Martins reading John SteinbecksEast of Eden and(her secret indulgence) Louis LAmour novels. She also enjoyscamping, hiking, playing the fiddle, rafting and surfing.

In Focus: Wendy Martin

Martin in Vienna, Austria, after studying in Italy for a term in 2000.

6

Illustration from the Saturday Evening Post, circa 1927

Behind the Scenery

The sound of saws at the Berry Patch timber sale in OregonsWillamette National Forest are the opening shots in thenext ancient forest war of the Pacific Northwest. Berry

Patch is the first old growth timber sale to be logged on theWillamette National Forest in more than three years.

The Willamette has historically been ground zero forcontroversy over public lands logging. In 1987 just this one forestlogged one billion board feet of timberalmost 10 percent of allthe timber that was consumed in the United States. Thanks inlarge part to the tireless work of Oregon activists, the Willamettelogged only 17 million board feet last yearthe lowest total forthe forest since the Great Depression.

Thats all about to change if the Bush administration getsits way. The purchaser of Berry PatchD.R. Johnson of Riddle,Oregonbought the sale in 1996, just before the bottom fell outof the market for large diameter old growth logs. After receivingmarket related contract extensions for years, the Forest Service

is forcing the company to complete the logging. The Bushadministration is banking on more Berry Patch-like timbersales as they move to streamline environmental planning inthe Northwest Forest Plan area. There are more than a dozentimber sales that would clearcut more than 2,000 acres of oldgrowth forest in the Willamette that could be sold as early as thissummer. Last year the Willamette lost $30 million on its timbersale program, more than any national forest in the country.

On a recent tour of the Berry Patch sale, there were morethan 100 giant Douglas firs felled in two separate logging units.Some of the largest trees were more than seven feet wide and500 years old. Several Forest Service law enforcement agentswere keeping watch on the area. Tree-sitters have occupied theNorth Winberry timber sale about a mile to the north of BerryPatch for more than three years.

Logging Old Growthby James Johnson


7/16


Public Lands Threatened Across the Nation

LoggingOregon and Washington: As of our press date, 150

timber sales target more than 50,000 acres of native and oldgrowth forest in western Oregon and Washington. More than70 acres were recently cut in Oregons Umpqua National Forest.Several of the last patches of native and old growth left inOregons Willamette National Forest are being clearcut.Montana: Bitterroot National Forest is being salvage loggedin the largest timber sale in U.S. history: 60 million board feetfrom 14,000 acres.California: The Forest Service is logging trees more than 1,000years old in the Sequoia National Monument.Alaska: Logging proponents in the Bush administration areplanning many timber sales in the Tongass National Forest, thelargest national forest in the U.S. Tongass is known for its richsalmon spawning grounds, prime grizzly bear habitat and theworlds most concentrated population of bald eagles.Washington: The Bush administration has 26 native and oldgrowth timber sales scheduled in the Gifford Pinchot NationalForest. Fifteen more are in the planning process. Ninety percentof the logging planned for the next ten years targets old growth.

DrillingCalifornia: Oil companies already extract 700,000

barrels of oil per year on more than 14,600 acres in Los PadresNational Forest, substantially degrading national forestlands.But the Forest Service is attempting to open additional wild-lands in five roadless areas of coastal mountains that are hometo 20 of Californias 67 endangered condors.Alaska: The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) is notout of danger yet. Despite the April Senate vote that rejecteda provision to drill in ANWR, the fate of the refuge remainsundecided as the House and Senate must now reconcile theirversions of the energy bill.Florida: A private company plans to conduct exploratory oildrilling and seismic testing in the heart of the Big CypressNational Preserve, which is named for its expansive landscape ofcypress, wet prairies, mixed hardwood swamps and pinelands.Rocky Mountain Front: Montanas Lewis and Clark NationalForest is one of several areas in the Rockies under considerationfor oil and gas drilling. Under the Bush administrations energybill, more than 350,000 acres could be opened to drilling. Therehas also been a huge jump in drilling permits in Utahs UintaBasin. More than 1,200 wells have been drilled and 1,748 permitapplications have been approved since 2000.Wyoming: The Forest Service plans to open 370,000 acres ofBridger-Teton National Forest for drilling, in the heart of GreaterYellowstone. Forest officials foresee up to 128 new wells, eventhough just 11 of 160 current wells are producing oil.

MiningMissouri: A renewed effort to search for lead in the

Ozarks has reignited a 20 year battle. The Doe Run Companyis seeking permission from the Forest Service to drill morethan 200 holes, some up to 1,000 feet deep, for additional leaddeposits in the Mark Twain National Forest. Potential drill sitelocations have been disclosed to the Forest Service and the BLMbut not the public.Montana: Glacier National Park, listed as one of Americas tenmost endangered national parks, is threatened by open-pit coal

mines and logging that would pollute the North

Fork of the Flathead River, along the parks western edge.A recent Canadian proposal to expand the Waterton LakesNational Park north of Glacier would prevent more loggingin the biologically diverse floodplain ecosystem.Southern Utah: A world-renowned symbol of the AmericanWest, Redrock Wilderness is currently being destroyed byhard-rock mining, oil and gas exploration, drilling, logging,

grazing and ORV wreckreation. (See article on pages 4-5.)

GrazingArizona: Grazing continues in Tonto NationalForest despite the destruction of a fragile desert

ecosystem. It will take centuries to recover from the dam-age already done. The Arizona BLM grazing allotments arescheduled to be assessed this year for compliance with thestatewide Standards and Guidelines for Rangeland Health.Idaho: Grazing in the Sawtooth National Recreation Area isthreatening gray wolves, which are killed or relocated afterconflicts with cattle. A coalition of Idaho conservation groupsis demanding the closure of eight grazing allotments thatwould encompass more than 100,000 acres.

ORV WreckreationYellowstone National Park: The Park Services decision tophase out snowmobiles in Yellowstone National Park wasoverturned by the Bush administration, which initiated a newstudy and forced the park to develop new, pro-snowmobilealternatives.

California: The BLMpublished a proposalfor the AlgondonesDunes in the Sonoran

Desert that would allowoff-road vehicles accessto an additional 49,000

acres that are home tomany rare, threatened and

endemic species.

Utah: The National Park Servicehas decided to keep motor vehiclesout of Salt Creek Canyon, oneof Canyonlands National Parksmost fragile riparian zones. But

off-road vehicle groups and localgovernments are trying to reverse

the decision.Utah: Legislation in Congress wouldcreate a federal motorized trail system,

the Shoshone Trail, in northernUtah. The system would include more

than 500 miles of trails.

For more information, check ourwebsite at www.forestcouncil.org.

Summer Siege

Reduced clean waterstandards, allowingmore mining waste intoour streams, more rawsewage into our riversand more destruction ofwetlands.

Slowed or stoppedtoxic cleanups andopposed makingpolluters pay for them.The projected taxpayerbill in 2003 is $700million and more than1 billion in 2004.

Allowed the ForestService to acceleratenative and old growthtimber sales in theNorthwest.

Approved a permit forthe U.S. Navy to blastsonar across as muchas 80 percent of theworlds oceans. Thepermit exempts theNavy from the MarineMammal Protection

Act and harms whales,dolphins and otherspecies.

Allowed energydevelopment atCanyons of the AncientsNational Monument inColorado.

Made an additionalfour million acresavailable for oil and gasdrilling in 2001.

Eliminated the CleanAir Acts New SourceReview program, whichwould have preventedthousands of tons of

additional air pollution.

Approved plans toship nuclear wasteto Nevadas YuccaMountain, where it willlikely contaminate theareas groundwater.

Moved to legalizemountaintop removalcoal mining. Newregulations (nowblocked by a courtruling) allow waste tobe dumped intovalleys, clogging

streams.

Rejected the KyotoProtocol, a globaltreaty to reduceclimate change.

Appointed nearly threedozen former energyindustry executives,lobbyists and lawyerswho have helpedcarry out energy policieswithout waiting forcongressional approval.

Bush Administration:Trashing Land, Air,Soil and Water

So far, the administration has:


8/16

A BIRDS-EYE VIEW

19511951

Davis Reservoir

...and youll see breathtaking mountain views, clear lakes and tall trees. At least as far as the beauty strip goes. Buttake a look from above (far above) and youll see that, beyond the strip of trees left along the highway, theres adifferent view. In little more than 50 years, this national forest has been transformed from what you see on the left

to the patchwork of roads and clearcuts on the right.

Take the highway through Oregons Deschutes National Forest...Portland

Portion of DeschutesNational Forest shown above

Davis Mountain

Wickiup Reservoir


9/16

19951995

Davis Reservoir

Wickiup Reservoir

A pictures worth a thousand words, and were putting together thousands of pictures. These are photo mosaics ofsmaller aerial shots, stitched together to create a dramatic record of the destruction of Americas national forests.Working with NASA and the University of Oregon Department of Cartography, Native Forest Council is creating similar

visual records of other national forests. For more information about this project, go to www.forestcouncil.org.

Giving Americans an accurate view of their national forests

Davis Mountain


10/16


We Already Pay Taxes!Forest Council joins thousands of citizens in national day of action against Fee Demo.

Isaiah Holman-Gross shows his support for free access to public lands on

the June 15 Day of Action in Florence, Oregon. Photo by Wendy Martin.

On June 15, the Native Forest Council joined citizens andconservation groups in a national day of action againstthe Forest Services Recreation Fee Demonstration

program, or Fee Demo. It is a program charging citizens tovisit publicly owned lands. Prior to the day of action, ForestCouncil members from across the nation used the action pages

at www.forestcouncil.org to fax their senators and tell them thatAmericans oppose this double taxation. We also alerted mediaaround the country to spread the word that, even as politiciansare working to make Fee Demo permanent, citizen oppositionis growing.

Council Regional Representative Robert Maris was thefirst person to take the Forest Service to task (and to court) in1997 over Fee Demo. In federal court Maris won the right tofreely access his favorite surfing spot on a state-owned jetty inFlorence, Oregon. Maris organized the demonstration at thefee collection booth in Florence, one of 30 protests around thecountry, to express support for free access to public lands andcall for the end of forest fees nationwide.

From birdwatchers, local business owners, fishermen, surfersand families, the people who gathered in Florence to show theirsupport for free access to public lands represented a diversegroup. Demonstrators distributed literature and displayed signs

in an effort to raise public awareness of Fee Demo.Fee Demo was introduced in 1996 through a rider tacked

onto an appropriations bill. Started as a three year experiment,it has been extended through 2004 by two additional riders.Pushed by the American Recreation Coalition (ARC), anindustry front group with members including Walt DisneyCo., Outdoor Resorts of America, Coleman and the motorcycleindustry, Fee Demo is the first step toward the privatization andcommercialization of our public lands.

In the Northwest, the program charges $5 per day or $30per year at trail heads, parking lots, turnouts, picnic areas andsimilar sites on public land. In parks, fees have skyrocketed, from$5 to $20 per vehicle. Fees are charged at almost 1,400 sites onnational parks, forest and BLM lands, generating an estimated$180 million annually. Visitors who refuse to pay can be finedup to $5,000 and sentenced to six months in jail (although noone has ever paid that sum, and only one person has served jail

time) but the average citation is $50.According to the General Accounting Office, about 20

percent of the fees go toward program administration. Theremaining fee dollars go to site improvements, often involvingtrail widening or paving, erecting signs, enlarging parking lotsand removing hazard trees.

Supporters of the program claim the extra revenue helpsimprove facilities, puts a value on recreation and makes up for thebudget cuts imposed by Congress. Derrick Crandall, president ofARC, explains the industry side in a 1999 L.A. Weeklyarticle:The American public feels that recreation on public lands is anincredible bargain, and is willing to pay substantially more.

Opponents argue that citizens already pay federal incometaxes that should adequately fund the operation and maintenanceof national forests, that Fee Demo disproportionately affects lowincome Americans and that it is a regressive tax that bears norelation to the actual costs of recreation. Federal agencies are

using tax dollars to fund destructive activities such as the timberprogram, which costs taxpayers more than $1 billion eachyear. If the Forest Service shifted even a small percentage out ofextractive activities there would be ample funding for operationand maintenance of public lands.

Most importantly, Fee Demo is an attempt by private,profit-driven corporations to change how our public lands aremanaged. If ARC is successful in promoting Fee Demo, the dooris left open for other private companies that stand to make aprofit from public assets. We are seeing a paradigm shift fromtax-funded public services to regressive user fees that price outmiddle and lower income families, says Scott Silver, executive

director of Wild Wilderness and a leading opponent of FeeDemo. We are turning America into a land of and for theelite. If this privatization continues, our public forests maysoon be run by corporations for the consumption of arecreation product. The profits go to those who manage the

land and sell recreation equipment and services.Thousands of citizens, more than 240 organizations

and numerous counties and cities object to Fee Demo. Thestate governments of Oregon, Colorado, California and NewHampshire have rejected it as well. Anyone who buys the passis counted as a vote for the program, but there is no way to voteagainst it without receiving a fine or citation.

And many people have opted for the citation. In a notableDecember 2001 decision, U.S. Magistrate Thomas Coffin foundthat the Forest Service had illegally exceeded its 100-site cap bycharging fees at 1,349 sites. This means that the Forest Serviceillegally obtained hundreds of thousands of dollars. Congresslifted the 100-site cap shortly after the ruling.

Despite ballooning opposition, lawmakers in Washingtonintend to take the demo out of Fee Demo, making thisfall a crucial time for opponents to make their voices heard.

A bill to make Fee

Demo permanent fornational parks wasalready introduced inMay. National Forestsare next in line.

It takes determinedpublic outcry tofight huge corporatemonetary influence.D e m o n s t r a t i o n s ,letters and lawsuitsaround the country areproving that Americancitizens wont giveaway their public landto private interestswithout a fight.

Clockwise from top: Eleanor

Leeson displays her sign

pointing out that Fee Demo is

double taxation;Council Regional

Representative Robert Maris

speaks to a reporter, while

other demonstrators speak to

drivers passing by; A diverse

group of demonstrators

included Frank and Ann

Wilson on the right, owners of

the restaurant Franks Place in

Mapleton, Oregon. Photos by

Wendy Martin.

For more information about

Fee Demo, check our website

at www.forestcouncil.org.

by Wendy Martin

The Oregon

legislature has

rejected Fee Demoon the grounds

that citizens

already pay federal

income taxes

USFS: Playing the Numbers

How many Fee Demo sitesare there? When Congress

first authorized the Fee

Demo Program (through arider, skipping the publichearing process) it said thatthe Forest Service couldcharge fees at up to 100areas, sites or projects.But in December 2001, U.S.Magistrate Thomas Coffin

found that the agency hadexceeded its authorityin collecting fees at 1,349sites. After the ruling,Congress lifted the 100-sitecap (in another process thatskipped public input). Nowthe Forest Service says it istesting fees nationwide on

87 projects in 80 NationalForests across 32 states andPuerto Rico.


11/16


The summer fires had scarcely begun, and already fingerswere pointing. The Forest Service blamed fires on analysisparalysis and environmental obstructionists. This

July, Mark Rey (former timber lobbyist and current U.S. UnderSecretary for Natural Resources and the Environment) claimedenvironmental lawsuits were to blame for catastrophic fires.

Never mind the fact that just 20 of 1,671 fuels reductionprojects had been appealed by outside interests. Or that noneof those made it to court, making the total number of these

paralysis lawsuits zero.Never mind overwhelming evidence that commercial

logging and fire suppression have exacerbated the fire problem.And forget the fact that just 25 percent of the funds allocatedby Congress for a National Fire Plan have actually beenspent on fire management (or that much of these funds haveactually been diverted to commercial logging projects). Forget

all this, said logging interests, the Forest Service and the Bushadministration: The answer isnt controlled burning, preventionor thinning brush. Commercial logging, including clearcuts,will save us from forest fires.

While this strategy will help Big Timbers bottom line (andjustify ballooning federal budgets), it certainly wont help forests,say scientists, who remind us that this summers catastrophicwildfires were actually about average if you look at the last 100years. The fire fighting budget, however, has increased sixfoldsince the early 1990s; Todays firefighting methods are morecostly, risky and environmentally destructive.

The President has called for more loggingboth for fireprevention and as a way to reimburse logging companies forthinning brush. As of our press date, different versions of firelegislation are being debated in Congress.

Before embracing Bushs Forest Health plan, though,legislators should ask a few simple questions. Why does

is President Bush calling for cutting large trees far fromcommunities, when we need just the opposite: clearingcommercially worthless brush near developed areas? Fuelsreduction is a legitimate practice in some areas, but why shouldwe pay logging companies to do it when the federal timberprogram already operates at a loss?

And why arent homeowners who build fire-prone homesin fire-prone forests shouldering some of the burden? In thisedition ofForest Voice, we examine some wildfire science, thecost of suppression, how Yellowstone has recovered from thecontroversial 1988 fire and the possibility of homeowners takingsome responsibility for building near national forests.

Wildfire Basics Dr. Tim Ingalsbee is the director of the Western Fire Ecology Center, a research and educationalorganization which studies and reports on fire related

forest management issues throughout the West. For ten years, Ingalsbee worked as a wildlandfirefighter for the U.S. Forest Service and the National ParkService. He has trained and supervised hot shot crews throughoutthe West in minimum impact suppression techniques. Here Dr.

Ingalsbee answers a few questions about wildfires.

How big is this summers fire season?When it comes to fire ecology, size doesnt matter. In fact, weneed to see more acres burning, under appropriate conditions,with beneficial ecological effects. The real issue is the intensityand severity of fires. Are the fires burning hot? Killing mostor all of the vegetation? Impacting the soil? These are thereal issues. Not the size. Unfortunately, federal agencies onlymeasure the size of fires. They really dont assess their severity.

How does logging affect wildfires?

In general, fires burning through native forests or unmanagedold growth forests are less severe than fires burning throughmanaged stands that have been logged, roaded or grazed.Because logging takes away the most fire-resistant big old treesand leaves behind the smaller trees. The disturbance caused bylogging causes a lot of growth of brush and grasses and thereslots of logging debris or slash left behind. These sites tend to behotter and drier, causing more intense fire, resulting in moresevere fire effects.

What about protecting peoples homes?This has become the burning issue of our time: How can weprotect homes and communities that have invaded fire-proneecosystems? And homeowners who are largely ignorant ofthe fact that theyve built their homes in a fire plain are now

We had to destroy the village into order to save it.

This infamous quote from Vietnam reflectedthe senselessness and cynicism of the war.Bushs plans to increase logging in nationalforests in the name of wildfire preventionare just as senseless and cynical.

experiencing floods: floods of fire. Homeowners could do somesimple, inexpensive things to greatly increase their homessurvivability from fire. Things like having a non-flammable roof.

Cutting the brush. Mowing the grass. Raking the pine needlesthat accumulate every year. Dont store your firewood underyour deck or next to your walls. Dont store your propane tanknext to your home. Simple things. You dont need a governmentgrant, an environmental impact statement or anyone elsesapproval to do this. Its really prudent behavior. And just thesethings can improve a homes survivability rate by 90%.

Why have fire management policies stayed the way they are?Our national psyche is still held captive to a cartoon bear that ispromoting the message absolutely contrary to the natural species.Real bears love burns. Burns create the berries. Burns create thelarge dead trees that they hibernate in, and that form salmonspawning pools. All of us have a responsibility, including thenews media that thrives on the hype and hysteria that wildfirescan create. The sooner we educate ourselves about fire ecology,fires beneficial effects, the sooner we prepare our communities

and fireproof our homes. I think that will take a lot of fear andhysteria out of fires. We can then begin a more rational firemanagement policy.

So, whats the solution?It would begin first with developing fire management plans. Itmay shock people, but very few of the national forests have a firemanagement plan in place, so when a fire strikes its basicallyup to a couple fire staff people in the dark of night to whip upa plan and then were just fighting these fires blindly, at greatcost to taxpayers. Already the Forest Service has exhausted itsbudget of $300 million. So its borrowing funds from a lot ofother activities.

For more information, please visit www.fire-ecology.org orwww.forestcouncil.org.

In general, fires

burning through

native forests or

unmanaged old

growth forests are

less severe than

fires burning

through managed

stands that havebeen logged, roaded

or grazed.


12/16


Wildfires in the United States: A Brief HistoryForest fires are part of the natural cycle. Some Native Americans conduct controlled burns.

The death of 87 firefighters prompts the USFS to adopt the 10 oclock policyall fires out by 10 a.m. the following morning. The number ofacres burned drop from more than one million to between 200,000-300,000 per year.USFS finds Smokey Bear in New Mexicos Lincoln National Forest. He becomes an icon for fire suppression and the Forest Service.

USFS ends blank check policy for fire fighting expenditures.

Both the Department of the Interior and the Forest Service formally adopt the policy of using fire as a tool to reduce fuel.

1.4 million acres in Greater Yellowstone burn. More than half of Yellowstone National Park, 793,880 acres, is allowed to burn.

Federal policy officially changes after the deaths of 14 firefighters in the Storm King fire in Colorado. Federal land managers are told to identifyareas that could burn with little risk to life or property.

Blank check funding returns, but with a new name: Emergency appropriations.

Fire fighting budget: $1.3 billion.

Fire fighting budget: $542 million.

USFS memo estimates fire fighting budget projected to be between $1.3 and $1.5 billion (it also indicates $215 million has been misplaced).

Before European settlers1871

1910

1970s

1972

1980s

1988

1990s

2000

2001

2002

Billions WastedThe $2 billion to $3 billion a year that the ForestService and other federal land agencies spend on

fires is mostly wasted, says a new report from the Oregon-basedThoreau Institute. Last year, Congress gave the Forest Service a

$1.4 billion, 38 percent increase in its budget, mostly for fire, onthe promise that spending more money now will reduce futurefires and fire costs. But thats a promise the Forest Service cantkeep.

Reforming the Fire Service, by Thoreau Institute economistRandal OToole, says the real problem with fire is not built-upfuels but the near-blank check that Congress has given the ForestService to put out fires and for other fire-related activities. Topreserve and enhance this budget windfall, the Forest Servicehas misled Congress in at least three ways:

First, the Forest Service claims decades of fire suppression haveled to an accumulation of fuels in the nations forests that makefires worse today. In fact, recent severe fires are due to drought,not fuels. Second, the Forest Service claims that thinning onfederal lands will protect homes and towns in the wildland-urban interface. In fact, thinning away from homes offers littleprotection, while treatments of the private lands immediately

around such homes offers sufficient protection. Finally, the

Forest Service tells Congress it can reduce fire suppressioncosts by increasing presuppression funds, including havingmore firefighters, aircraft, and other equipment on standby. Yetexperience has proven otherwise: After a 50 percent increase inpresuppression funding, 2001 suppression costs per acre burnedwere as great as in 2000 and 50 percent more than in 1999, eventhough 2001 was a relatively mild fire year.

Based on these claims, Congress approved 2001 budgets forpresuppression, suppression and fuel treatments that were nearly

twice the year before and at least six times what they had been adecade before. Yet this funding will not stop fires, protect homesor reduce the cost of suppressing future fires.

Fire suppression in the South, where most forests areecologically adapted to frequent, light fires, leads to fuel buildups that can cause catastrophic fires after a few years. But mostforests in the West are ecologically adapted to infrequent, severefires. Fire suppression in such forests does not necessarily leadto fuel problems. The West has always had major fires, saysOToole, and it always will have major fires.

At the same time, fire managers and fire ecologists agree thatletting more fires burn will save money, protect firefighters lives,and improve ecosystems. Yet the Forest Service continues tosuppress 99.7 percent of all fires, OTooles report reveals. Tightrestrictions prevent local managers from letting fires burn evenif they know such fires would be good for ecosystems and are nota threat to private property. The result is that the Forest Service

spends more money than ever on fire suppression.The real problem, says the report, is the perverse incentives

created by the budget process. Firefighters say the Forest Serviceputs out fires by dumping money on them, says OToole. NowCongress is dumping money on the Forest Service in the hopefires will go awaybut they wont.

The report recommends that Congress stop spending moneyon fire and let the Forest Service and other federal land agenciesmanage fire out of their own receipts. The report notes that moststate forest agencies and private landowners rely on insurance tocover their costs in severe fire years. This takes away the needto give agencies a blank check, which only leads to bureaucraticempire building. Download full report at www.to.org/fire.html.

Fire managers

and fire ecologists

agree that letting

more fires burn

will save money,

protect firefighters

lives, and improveecosystems. Yet

the Forest Service

continues to

suppress 99.7

percent of all fires.

Federal Fire Sham

Logging and Fire RiskDoes logging really decrease fire danger?

Overwhelming evidence indicates the opposite.Forests with extensive logging and road building experiencegreater fire severity than unlogged, unroaded areas, accordingto both the Department of the Interior and the Departmentof Agriculture: The removal of large, merchantable trees fromforests does not reduce fire risk and may, in fact, increase suchrisk, says a September 2000 report by the Department of theInterior and the Department of Agriculture. A 2001 audit by theDepartment of Agriculture also reports that commercial timbersales do not meet the criteria for forest restoration. And U.S.Forest Service fire specialist Denny Truesdale says, The majorityof the material that we need to take out is not commercial timber.It is up to three and four inches in diameter. We cant sell it.

So why is the Forest Service still pressing fuel reductiontimber sales? Big trees mean big money. As a 1999 GAO reportsays, Forest Service managers tend to (1) focus on areas withhigh-value commercial timber rather than on areas with high fire

hazards or (2) include more large, commercially valuable treesin a timber sale than are necessary to reduce the accumulatedfuels. Removing small trees is expensive in the short run, butcould save millionseven billionsin the future.

Commercial Logging and FuelCommercial logging removes the large, fire-resistant trees,leaving behind flammable needles, limbs and brush. Removinglarge trees also reduces the overstory canopy that shades theforest floor. With a hotter, drier surface, debris on the grounddry to create prime fuel, helping fires spread faster and burnlonger, with greater flame lengths and more erratic shifts inspeed and direction.

Monoculture Tree PlantationsTree plantations replanted after clearcuts are extremelyvulnerable. Fire spreads quickly through monoculture, same-

age, densely planted trees. Tree plantations are also proneto disease and infestation, which create dry, dead trees idealfor a catastrophic fire. When plantations burn, they usuallyhave a 100 percent mortality rate, and leave no native seedsto regenerate stands. Burned plantations require expensive,repeated management for successful restoration.

RoadsLogging requires roads, and roads bring the number one causeof wildfires: humans. Over the past decade of fires, humans havestarted an average of 88 percent, according to federal statistics.Most are accidental, but approximately 25 percent (even up to 50percent, according to some estimates) are caused by arson.

The real problem with fire is not built-up

fuels but the near-blank check that Congress

has given the Forest Service


13/16


South of Tower Falls Store, at left right after the fires in November 1988, and at right in July 1989.

For more than 250 years, the three-toed woodpecker barelyeked out an existence in the high forests here in the Rockies.The eight-inch insect eater never had much more than a

tenuous foothold and by the 1980s was on the verge of losingeven that, pushed out by hardier birds.

Then something auspicious happened, giving the littlewoodpecker a break. In 1988, wildfires roared through 750,000acres of Yellowstone, charring acre after acre of the old forest,destroying habitat for the birds competitors. What looked like

a disaster for the parks wildlife turned out to be a boon for thewoodpecker.

All those dead trees are bug factories, wonderful for him,said John Varley, pointing to a steep ridge once covered by old-growth lodgepole pines and conifers. Today, the mountainsideis prickly with what look like towering black chopsticks. Its thewoodpeckers happy new home.

In a fire, even a big one, for every loser, there is a winner,said Varley, director of the Yellowstone Center for Resources.

In this summer of massive wildfires throughout the West,Yellowstone offers a compelling lesson in fires quid pro quo.A forest destroyed is also a forest made over: It becomes moreefficient, safer and often more diverse.

Rather than land lying fallow after a fire, other plants rush into fill the vacuum. After a huge burn, forests are all but fireproof,and the absence of long-established trees opens the forest tonew species of plants and healthier versions of their own kind.

Animals adapt in similar ways. Like the plants that have alwaysexisted in small numbers in the Yellowstone ecosystem, someanimals bide their time untilconditions are right, thenrapidly increase after a big fire.

Since the fires, Yellowstonehas become a living laboratoryfor fire ecologists, who in morethan 400 research projects have charted, measured and mappedthe massive burn area to calculate the fires handiwork. Varleyargues that the fires did a fine job of restoring balance to thepark. Despite the national hysteria following the parks let itburn policy, Yellowstone today shows no signs of devastation.For that, Varley compliments nature and its hardheaded resolveto impose balance on its ecosystems.

Varley walked the parks backcountry to illustrate that point.He paused in a broad green swale, tucked partway up a ridge. His

black boots stood ankle deep in a thick carpet of healthy plantsand a young 11 foot Douglas fir dwarfed his 6 foot frame.

Golly, it doesnt look devastated, the scientist wisecracked,gesturing to the vast tract of national parkland before him thatexploded in fire on the night of September 10, 1988. That blazewas the last of several major wildfires that rendered the nationsoldest national park an ecological disaster, as media reportscalled it at the time.

But destruction, in Varleys experience, is in the eye of thebeholder. Where many see this summers huge wildfires inColorado and Arizona as, invariably, devastating, Varley andother scientists know fire for what it is, an integral actor innatures grand design for survival.

Most plants and animals here have evolved to survive fire. Someeven fare better after a fire. The dominant tree in Yellowstone,the lodgepole pine, stores its seeds in a resin-encased cone.Intense fires cause the resin to melt, releasing decades worth of

seeds to the forest floor. Because the soil is rich with nutrientsdeposited by the fire, pine saplings flourish as they would not

have before the fire.Even the lodgepoles seeds

are fire-smart: The black seedsspill onto the charcoal andash and are camouflaged fromhungry birds. Quaking aspen,

rarely seen in the park and unable to compete for space with theconifers, are now thriving in leafy green swaths. The aspens vastroot systems are deep and protected from a fires heat, allowingthem to capitalize on the open space provided by the burn.

When a fire takes down tree crowns, it creates more sunlight onthe forest floor. Plants that had lain quietly in seed beds beneaththe soil opportunistically spring up after burns, responding tonewfound light or sensing a change in environment. Everywhereafter Western fires, brilliant red fireweed plants abound.

I worked at Yellowstone for 14 years before the 88 firesand Id never seen a Bicknells geranium, but they flourishedafter the fires, said Don Despain, a former research biologist atYellowstone.

Theres a lot more to forests than trees. They may be gone,but everything else sprouts like mad, said Despain, now withthe U.S. Geological Survey in Bozeman, Montana. We suspectthere is a chemical released after fire that causes floweringplants to take off. There is a nitrogen compound in smoke thatstimulates other species to germinate.

Even among animals, habitat loss for some means new homesfor others. Moose, elk and pine martens, which thrived in old-

by Julie Cart, Los Angeles Times Photos by the National Park Service

Flowers among burned Douglas fir near Tower Junction.

Yellowstone:A Study in theVital Role of

Wildfires

Despite the national hysteria following the

parks let it burn policy, Yellowstone today

shows no signs of devastation.

Most plants andanimals here have

evolved to survive

fire. Some even fare

better after a fire.

The dominant tree

in Yellowstone, the

lodgepole pine,

stores its seeds in a

resin-encased cone.

Intense fires cause

the resin to melt,

releasing decades

worth of seeds to

the forest floor.

Continued on page 14


14/16


Bequests to Native Forest Council:

If you would like to assure the Native Forest Councils future through a provision in your will, this general form of bequest is suggested:

I give, devise and bequeath to the Native Forest Council, located in Eugene, Oregon, the sum of $_______________ and/or (specifically described property).

Donations to NFC are tax deductible. NFC is a not-for-profit corporation exempt under Internal Revenue Code Section 501(c)(3)). We welcomeany inquiries you may have. In cases where you have specific wishes about the disposition of your bequest, we suggest you discuss such provisionswith your attorney.

Yellowstone, continued from page 13

Little of the firesgood news is

understood by thepublic because

media reportingon wildfires issimplistic and

sensationalized.

Fire as savior is a concept thats counter

intuitive for most Americans. Fire has a fewpublic relations problems. For generations

raised on Smokey Bears admonitions

against forest fires, the sight of trees

burning seems wrong.

A people without children would face a hopeless future.A country without trees is almost as hopeless.

-Theodore Roosevelt

Help leave a legacy for future generations. Enjoy guaranteedincome for life, tax benefits and estate tax savings. NativeForest Council offers several planned giving options to increasethe benefits your gift provides the Counciland the financialbenefits for you and your beneficiaries.

Options available for planned giving: Making a simple bequest (see below). Transferring assets with a charitable remainder trust. Enjoying guaranteed income with a charitable gift annuity. Saving on taxes and enjoying a lifetime income through a

deferred gift annuity. Using your retirement plan to give.

To learn more, please contact us or visit our website:Native Forest CouncilPO Box 2190Eugene, OR 97401541.688.2600541.689.9835 (fax)[email protected]

growth forests, did not do well in years immediately after thefire. Nor did most nesting birds.

But some birds, such as three-toed woodpeckers, tree swallowsand mountain bluebirds, prospered. Ground squirrels are back,happy in younger sagebrush that allows the small creatures tohide in and peer over.

Little of the fires good news is understood by thepublic because media reporting on wildfires is simplistic andsensationalized, said Peter Morrison, executive director of thePacific Biodiversity Institute in Winthrop, Washington.

They say, 10,000 acres destroyed by fire, he said. Rarely

do I see as much attention to the landscape after the fire. Thereporting would be much more accurate if it said, 10,000 acresrestored by fire.

Fire as savior is a concept thats counter intuitive for mostAmericans. Fire has a few public relations problems. Forgenerations raised on Smokey Bears admonitions against forestfires, the sight of trees burning seems wrong. Aesthetically, atreed landscape is more pleasing than the fire-gutted alternative.

Also, fire can kill.When we say that fire

is good for an ecosystem,the mental image thepublic has is a vast areaof standing black treesthats just denuded. Itjust goes against corevalues for some people,

said Paul Langowski, afire ecologist for the U.S.Forest Service.

When Yellowstonebegan to burn afterlightning ignited fires in

June 1988, park managersfollowed a policy thatallowed natural fires toburn themselves out, aslong as life or propertywas not threatened. Bythe next month, thecomplex of eight fireswas so out of controlthat the controversiallet it burn policy was

reversed.

Eventually, the Yellowstone fires would require 25,000personnel to fight, including two battalions of Marines,and more than 10 million gallons of water. The last blaze

was extinguished in mid-Novemberput out by rain andsnowand the bill for the fire fighting effort came to $120million.

Fire management policy in the park still allows natural firesto burn. Generally, a similar policy applies to all public lands,although with the severe drought in the West, land managers arequick to fight even small fires.

The Yellowstone blazes share similarities with wildfires fromthis years dangerous fire season. Images of the massive fires werein the news for weeks. Americans were aghast as animals fledfrom burning forests and 250 year old trees immolated in 15seconds. The fires were so intense that 150,000 acres of parklandburned in one day.

For Varley and other Yellowstone scientists, the criticismsurrounding the fires lasted longer than the damage to the park.Congressional hearings were called, the federal approach to fires

was revamped and experts claimed Yellowstone would never bethe same.

A few months after the fire, I was right here, walkingthrough 10 inches of ash, Varley said, pointing down to ameadow bursting with plants. Another way to look at ash is asdecomposed nutrients, the building blocks of life.

Several months later, plants covered 80% of the same site,Varley said.

The following year the meadow was completely covered withvegetation. I like the way things have shifted here, Varley said.People want things to stay the same, but thats never possiblein nature. One species is on top for a long time, then the fireschange that. The deer mouse used to be the dominant animalin these forests. Now its the red-backed voles turn. Nature isalways seeking balance. Fires make it happen.

Copyright 2002, Los Angeles Times. Reprinted with permission. For more on

the Yellowstone Fire and the forests recovery, visit www.forestcouncil.org.Lodgepole pine seedling.


15/16


Solutions: Fire Prevention

The 2002 fire season has sparked a heated debate aboutwildfires. Though the Bush administration and the loggingindustry still claim that logging prevents forest fires, both

Big Timber and the environmental community can agree on onething: fireproofing homes is a relatively simple and effective wayto prevent wildfiresand save lives and tax dollars.

Homeowners who are largely ignorant of the fact that

theyve built their homes in a fire plain are now experiencingfloods: floods of fire, says Dr. Tim Ingalsbee, director of theWestern Fire Ecology Center. Along with logging, drought anda century of fire suppression, the increasing number of peoplebuilding in the wildland-urban interface (the zone where forestsand human development meet), has put more homesandlivesat risk.

The interface is quickly developing: Population growthrates near national forests are among the highest in the U.S.There are now ten times asmany homes in areas prone towildfire as there were 25 yearsago. Urban sprawl, populationgrowth and technology thatallows people to work and liveaway from urban centers have all contributed to the zones rapidgrowth. So far, insurance companies dont charge higher rates

for homes in the fire plain. The Forest Service doesnt chargethese homeowners (not any more than they charge the rest ofus, anyway) to put fires out. And local governments have fewincentives to slow development in high risk areas.

In recent years, firefighting costs have risen dramatically.More than half of federal fire management funds are spent onemergency wildfire suppression. A Forest Service memo estimatesthis years firefighting costs at $1.3 billion to $1.5 billion. Theagency estimates that a third of all fire suppression dollars arespent defending the wildland-urban interface. If homeownerstook appropriate measures to protect their homes from fire, thesefigures could be drastically reduced.

The single most effective and quickest step that we cantake is for individual homeowners to create defensible spacearound their homes, says William Romme, professor of forestfire science at Colorado State University. The majority of homescatch fire when firebrands, or burning embers, blow onto roofs or

surrounding vegetation, so installing a fire resistant roof, storingflammable objects at least 30 feet away and planting fire-resistantvegetation within 200 feet from a home can save it. According to

Dr. Ingalsbee, simple and inexpensive fire prevention tactics canincrease a homes survivability rate by up to 90 percent. Properprevention measures not only help homes survive fire, but canalso turn homes and entire communities into zones that stopfire by depriving it of fuel, called fuel breaks, making homes andcommunities a part of the solution rather than the problem.

Because individuals have historically been slow to fire-prooftheir homes, the responsibility of fire prevention often fallsto city and state policy makers. Although the majority of

Western towns have not adopted new wildfire codes (even ElPaso, one of the most high-risk areas in Colorado, still permitscedar-shingle roofs on houses in the forest), many have begun towork with fire agencies, insurance companies and city plannersto ensure that their homes are safe from future fires.

After the June Rodeo-Chediski fire destroyed 450 homes inSho Low, Arizona, the townis drafting ordinances thatwill require building with fireresistant materials. In Colorado,39 of its 64 counties havevoluntarily participated in

programs to improve building codes and firefighter training.Bend, Oregon is another good example. The town became a

pilot community for the FireFree program after a 1990 fire burned21 homes and structures and a 1996 fire burned another 30.FireFree is a progressive, fire prevention program incorporatingthe local fire department, the fire district, city planning and anearby national forest. The program has enabled Bend to mapwildfire hazard zones, institute a fuel break ordinance to assurethe creation of defensible space and hold property ownersaccountable by establishing penalties for noncompliance. Thecity also amended its building code to address issues of wateravailability, slope, property accessibility and block length.

Ultimately, it is the main right and responsibility ofhomeowners to manage the structures and vegetation ontheir own private lands to reduce home ignitability, says Dr.Ingalsbee. It should not be the burden of taxpayers throughoutthe country to pay the economic costs and environmentalimpacts of extensive fuels reduction projects on public lands.

Together, homeowners and communities can help slow the

flood of fire, saving their homes, tax dollars and lives. A newapproach to wildfire prevention may also save us from a renewedagenda in the White House to log our national forests.

Fire-Proofing Homes in the Fire Plain

by Leah Greenstein

Ultimately, it is the main right andresponsibility of homeowners tomanage the structures and vegetationon their own private lands to reduce

home ignitabilityIt should not be theburden of taxpayers throughout thecountry to pay the economic costs andenvironmental impacts of extensive fuelsreduction projects on public lands.

-Dr. Tim Ingalsbee

Simple and inexpensive fire preventiontactics can increase a homes survivability

rate by up to 90 percent.

1. Create a defensible space: a 30 foot buffer zone with lowlying plants or grass. Thin an additional 70 foot zone.(Farther for homes on slopes where fire spreads faster.)

2. Replace wood shingles with non-flammable materials:aluminum, cement shingle, tile or sheet metal.

3. Keep roof and gutters free of leaves, moss and pine needles.

4. Install electrical service lines underground.

5. Provide adequate water supply and pressure that reaches allsides of the house.

6. Regularly remove flammable vegetation.

7. Trim tree branches up to six feet from the ground.

8. Driveways provide emergency access. They should havefire breaks on both sides and should be not be too narrow,windy or steep for firetrucks to ascend and maneuver.

9. Store combustibles such as firewood, picnic tables, etc. awayfrom the house.

10. Keep large trees spaced 10 feet apart. (Farther if on a slope.)Rustic, beautiful and a good example of a fire-prone home.

Homeowners

who are largely

ignorant of the

fact that theyvebuilt their homes

in a flood

plain are now

experiencing

floods. But these

are floods of fire.

Check our website formore wildfire preventioninformation:www.forestcouncil.org

Some other good sites:

www.taxpayer.net

Taxpayers for CommonSense: Wildfire economyand policy facts

www.firefree.orgFireFree: The FireFreeprogram and how tostart one in your area

www.or.blm.gov/nwfire/docs/Livingwithfire.pdfLiving with fire: A guide

for the homeowner

www.fire-ecology.orgInformative site ofthe Western Fire

Ecology Center, Dr.TimIngalsbees organization

www.nifc.govNational Interagency FireCenter: Updates, factswww.colostate.edu/Depts/CSFS/homefire.htmlColorado StateUniversity: Homeprotection strategies

www.or.blm.gov/nwfire/Northwest FirePrevention Education:Fire updates restrictions

and closures, wildfireprevention tips

www.landscouncil.org/wildfire/wildfire.htmLands Council: Wildfirenews and information

www.firesafeidyllwild.org/firesafeweb/problem/faq/faq.html

Answers to frequentlyasked questions aboutdefensible space


16/16

Save Our Disappearing Native Forests

ZERO CUT.ON PUBLIC LANDS

Please send your petition and membership application to the Native Forest Council.

ZERO CUT. No more compromises, negotiations, deals or surrenders. The destruction of Americas public lands must stop! I want to help savewhats left and recover whats been lost of our national forests. We need the clean air, soil and water that only forests provide. By signing this petition, I am urging theBush administration to stop all logging on our national forests, and to spend our tax dollars on the restoration, not the liquidation, of our nations precious heritage.

I want to help get the word out. Please send a

complimentary copy of theForest Voice to:

Name _____________________________________

Address ___________________________________

City________________ State____ Zip ________

I want to give a gift membership of $35 to:

Name _____________________________________

Address ___________________________________

City________________ State____ Zip ________

Rush to:

Native Forest CouncilPO Box 2190

Eugene, OR [email protected]

Planned GivingNative Forest Council offersa variety of planned giving

opportunities. Gifts of stock,

real estate and other assets

may offer tremendous tax

savings for you and provide

the Council with a greater net

gift. If you are interested in

planned giving or bequests,

contact Native Forest Council

$25 Student/Limited Income $35 Advocate $50 Supporter $75 Conservator

$100 Sustainer $500 Benefactor $_____David Brower Circle

Ill pledge a monthly

forest voice fall 2002

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